There is a long felt need to find economical, safe, and efficient alternative transportation means. The need to develop these alternatives is critical in light of present day congestion and related environmental factors associated with the automobile.
One of the recurring areas that are most in need of alternative transportation solutions is the daily grind, over relatively short, but highly congested highways, to and from work. The present invention is one such alternative.
The present invention relates to a means for providing a convenient, safe, and economical arrangement of elements so as to facilitate the unimpeded movement of passengers through the transit system.
In operation, there is a continuing variation in the displacement of the shuttleboat, over the waterline. Displacement, or how high or low the shuttleboat rides in the water is predicated on its loading, how many passengers, how much fuel or, in the case of hydrofoil boats, whether or not the shuttlecraft is planing on its hydrofoils or down on its hull.
These factors and more function to establish the exact height of the finish deck level over the water and, by extension, function to establish the vertical gradient between the decking of the shutle-boat and that of the ship to which it docks.
A separate, but functionally interrelated objective, is that of providing fast, safe exit and ingress means for the passengers so as to facilitate the flow of people to and from the vessels. The manner and arrangement of the elements in the present invention functions to provide both a means for ingress and exit, of large numbers of people, with an elevating means for the leveling of the respective decking elements.
A further, but fundamental factor is safety. In this respect it is necessary to have the device operate with a degree of precision, essentially leveling the respective decking elements to within close vertical tolerances; and, to thereby avoid `tripping steps,` such as would be caused by slight differences in the elevation of the respective surfaces.